This made my day. Another in state recruit, who was an apparent lock to end up at Illinois, slips away. Here are some funny quotes i pulled from an Illini message board. Enjoy

" This is not good. Ok, what is the rationalization for this one? Another top player in the state...buh bye."

"This stuns me. From what I heard the staff was very confident they were going to get him. "

"How many players have we been the leader for that go to another school. He needs to learn to close the deal!"

"Whatever, its a good thing he is not a car salesman he would starve!!!!"

"I'm going to puke. " lol

"At what point do you go out and pay a stud recruiter big bucks to come in? I'm not saying BAM can't recruit, but I'd definitely say it's his weakness. A big time recruiter would really complement Weber well." Bill Self? Lol

"At least we didn't lose him to Kansas."

I could go on and on. This leaked at 3:30 PM yesterday, and already a 30 page topic. If Illinois gets Rose they will be fine. Otherwise i see them being mediocre in the near future.

1. That you, after accusing me of jealousy, go on about how this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Hmmmm...wonder who's hung up on who.

For the record, I'm the fan of the school who DIDN'T lose to 14 and 13 seeds in the 1st round of the last two NCAA tournaments.

Bears mentioning.

2. That learning this news this morning was going to ruin my day, or so I thought.

Then I open the paper this afternoon, and learn that Turner's teammate, Demetri McCamey, committed to Illinois on the same day.

Who's the better player of the two?

Probably Turner.

Who's the bigger need?

McCamey. Without question.

We needed a point guard a lot more than we needed a wing, and we've got a point guard now. A damn good one. Maybe the next Deron. Lots of similarities between the two: teammates with a more highly-regarded wing player in high school; built like linebackers; ranked around the 50ish range; not flashy, but very athletic and smart with the ball.

If Derrick wants to join the fun and be a part of a three-guard setup that would even eclipse Dee/Deron/Luther....awesome. If not, there's still some damn good players out there that are interested in Illinois. If one of them wants to come on board, great. If not, well, I'm happy with this recruiting class as it already is. Because as it is, on paper, this recruiting class is already on par with Self's best at Illinois.